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First National Bank Customers Reported Fake Debit Card Transactions

The First National Bank of Durango (USA) has disclosed that a large number of its clients are at risk owing to new spurious transactions after the data breach incident at the Heartland Payment Systems.

The Bank made the announcement on March 1, 2010 following reports from many clients claiming they had found fraudulent transactions on their payment cards (debit cards).

First National also states that the widely known Heartland Payment Systems data breach during 2009 has caused the spurious transactions. Highlighting the infringement, the Bank posted an alert message on the First National website. According to the alert, it (Bank) urged customers to be careful because the security infringement at Heartland Payment Systems about 12-months back might have compromised debit cards issued by it (First National).

During January 2009, Heartland disclosed that it had found a malware in its card processing system that probably compromised massive number of card data. Albert Gonzalez, a computer hacker, recently admitted executing the particular online assault as well as several others. He therefore has been sentenced to at least 17-years of imprisonment.

Moreover, the alert message states that it is vital for customers to understand that the security breach did not occur at the First National Bank of Durango. It was a third-party system on which the breach took place. The Bank's computers are secured, the message assures.

Moni Grushkin, Senior Vice-President of First National, states that the clients came to the Bank during the end-week of February 2010 complaining unusual debit entries on their statements. When First National Bankers gathered for a discussion on the problem, they received the same complaints from many other clients as well as the bank's card processor, which said that it had discovered many debit cards compromised. Around 20 clients complained of fake charges during the 1st week of March 2010.

Subsequently, First National proceeded to stop all payments related to doubtful charges on their bills.

The Bank states that it has detected 5,000 debit cards from the total, which are potentially compromised. It, however, hasn't revealed any fraud sum associated with the stolen cards.